Sweater Weather

The fall is my favorite time of year: walking out the door on the way to work and thinking: hmm, I could use a sweater today. Or a pair of woolly socks. Or a decent place to get a cup of coffee by my office, or car service to work every day. But I digress.

There has been a lot of knitting going on here, and a lot of thinking about knitting when I am not actually knitting. Does that surprise you? In just the last week I've finished my Totoro mittens, a Faux Isle hat and cast on this lovely Kernel scarf. I also frogged a Ribbi Shell made with a Rowan Cashmere blend that looked great but raised my body temperature 3 degrees the one time I wore it, as well as undoing an ill-conceived Noro version of Mr. Greenjeans.

I've been thinking about fashion, too. Fall fashion! I saw The September Issue over the weekend, and enjoyed it a lot. Throughout the movie Anna Wintour wore a lot of fur, but I didn't see her wearing any handknits. Why? She was pretty skinny and skinny people are so often cold, I am told. She was drinking a lot of Starbucks coffee probably from a place right near her office, maybe that was keeping her warm. Plus she got driven everywhere, and I bet she had the car service driver put the heat on in the car.

Looking around for some couture handknit inspiration after the movie I came upon this dress. For some reason this dress speaks to me, and it's not saying "Ouch!".

I read something somewhere about fashion being about the ambivalence of urges and taboos, and this dress really underlined that for me. Crochet gives me the heebie jeebies but I just love a crocheted granny square. I think it could use another sleeve, though, and I suspect they may have used a lot of acrylic yarn judging by the colors.